In theory you certainly can run the motor with any 3-phase inverter/controller designed to run a synchronous motor at the appropriate voltage, as long at it can connect (perhaps with additional hardware) to whatever Nissan used as a shaft position encoder. Most readily available AC motor controllers are designed for a much lower voltage.Can I just use the naked motor, the naked cells, and a third party speed controller to wire something simple up?
Although I haven't seen anyone stripping a Leaf pack down to the bare cells, stripping it down to the bare modules (of four cells each) and using your own BMS is practical - check out this for an example:
Leaf module based 150V 65Ah battery pack...